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Trade-offs between longer data context or transaction outside of context?

I am writing a Web API Rest service that does operations on a distinct set of entities. I have broken them down like this:
db = new DBEntities();
using (var dbContextTransaction = db.Database.BeginTransaction())
{
try
{
ProcessClient();
ProcessClientPerson();
ProcessGuardian();
ProcessAddress();
ProcessEmail();
ProcessPhones();
ProcessChildren();
dbContextTransaction.Commit();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
dbContextTransaction.Rollback();
etc.
Following the advice that data contexts should live as short as possible, each of the methods creates its own data context, calls SaveChanges(), and disposes of it at the end:
private ProcessClient()
{
db = new DBEntities();
....
This obviously does not work - a transaction context created this way is tied to the data context. If something goes wrong in one of the entity operations, only that operation is rolled back (implicitly), but the overarching transaction is not.
I found this approach for creating a transaction outside of EF, but I am wondering if I should follow it or if I should just let my data context live for the duration of the transaction and keep the transaction inside of EF!?
I am not looking for an opinion, but for data around stability, performance, etc.

There is no immediate need to keep contexts short-lived. You can do that but you don't have to.
Over time entities will accumulate in a context. If you risk running out of memory it can be necessary to let go of a context.
Otherwise, the usual procedure is to keep the context alive for the duration of the logical unit of work. Here, that UOW is all those methods in their entirety.
This also makes transaction management easier (as you already found out).
dbContextTransaction.Rollback();
This is an anti-pattern. Simply don't commit in case of error.

I have mixed feelings about this. I am working against a legacy database that has no foreign key constraints, and I am inserting, updating, and deleting between 20 and 30 objects in one of these service calls.
The problem is that I need to call SaveChanges() frequently to get the identity column values that will become foreign keys.
On the other hand, I have to be able to roll back everything if there is a problem three layers down, so a single large transaction is needed.
For some reason that I have not been able to determine, calling SaveChanges repeatedly on the same data context would result in errors that the connection state is open. So I ended up giving each method its own data context anyway:
var scope = new TransactionScope(TransactionScopeOption.RequiresNew,
new TransactionOptions() { IsolationLevel = IsolationLevel.ReadUncommitted);
using (scope)
{
try
{
ProcessClient();
ProcessClientPerson();
ProcessGuardian();
ProcessAddress();
ProcessEmail();
ProcessPhones();
ProcessChildren();
scope.Complete();
}
catch (System.Data.Entity.Validation.
DbEntityValidationException ex)
{
[...] handle validation errors etc [...]
}
}
with each section doing basically this, once stripped down to the bare essentials:
private void ProcessClient() {
{
using (MyDBEntities db = new MyDBEntities())
{
[...] doing client stuff [...]
aClient.LastUpdated = DateTime.Now;
db.AddOrUpdate(db, db.Clients, aClient, aClient.ClientID);
db.SaveChanges();
ClientId = aClient.ClientID; // now I can use this to form FKs
}
}
Mixed feelings about locking, because on my development VM the transaction runs for 1-2 seconds and this is a production database with office staff and online customers doing CRUD transactions through web applications at the same time.
Unrelated, but helpful for my AddOrUpdate method was this blog post.

Entity framework 4 - Number of active connections

I have an old application which is using Entity framework 4(ObjectContext). EF 6 has DbContext.
In EF4 I can explicitly open database connection and do something like as below
using(var context = new EmployeeContext)
{
context.Connection.Open();
// and then here I am accessing some database objects
// and then calling context.SaveChanes();
}
Also in some other files I have code like as below. code did not call context.Connection.Open();
using(var context = new EmployeeContext)
{
// here I am accessing some database objects
// and then calling context.SaveChanes();
}
I know both of above will work.Application is used by quite a number of users(around 1200 concurrent users at some time).
Now I went to my database server and ran below query during peak time usage of my application
SELECT
DB_NAME(dbid) as DBName,
COUNT(dbid) as NumberOfConnections,
loginame as LoginName
FROM
sys.sysprocesses
WHERE
dbid > 0
GROUP BY
dbid, loginame
It showed around some 5000 open connections at that time and that is when I am thinking; Is it because of
context.Connection.Open() as code is not explicitly calling context.Connection.Close() and because of this connection is still opened and this is increasing load on database server. Though context.Connection.Open() is enclosed inside using block.
Thoughts please?

If you look at this code
using(var context = new EmployeeContext)
{
context.Connection.Open();
// and then here I am accessing some database objects
// and then calling context.SaveChanes();
}
As soon as context goes out of scope of the using statement, context.Dispose() is called, which in turn closes the connection.
The explicit call to .Open() does not require an explicit call to .Close(), though you do want to make sure you leave the using block as soon as you no longer need the connection to be open.

Snapshot isolation in SQL / code blocking reads

I suspect I don't understand fully what's going on or something weird is happening. (The first case is more likely I guess.)
The big picture:
I'm trying to have a web-service perform certain operations asynchronously as they can be time consuming and I don't want the client to wait for the operations to finish (just query for the results every now and again to see the operation is done).
The async code is wrapped in a transaction - in case something goes wrong, I want to be able to rollback any changes.
Unfortunately the last step of the async code is to call a DIFFERENT service which queries the same database.
Despite wrapping the whole thing in a Snapshot transaction, the last step fails as the service cannot read from the database.
For that matter, while the async operation is underway I cannot perform a simple SELECT statements from the database either.
Here's a sample of the code which I'm currently using to test out the transactions (using Entity Framework 5 model first):
using (var transaction = new System.Transactions.TransactionScope(System.Transactions.TransactionScopeOption.RequiresNew, new System.Transactions.TransactionOptions() { IsolationLevel = System.Transactions.IsolationLevel.Snapshot }))
{
var db = new DataModelContainer();
Log test = new Log();
test.Message = "TEST";
test.Date = DateTime.UtcNow;
test.Details = "asd";
test.Type = "test";
test.StackTrace = "asd";
db.LogSet.Add(test);
db.SaveChanges();
using (var suppressed = new System.Transactions.TransactionScope(System.Transactions.TransactionScopeOption.Suppress))
{
var newDb = new DataModelContainer();
var log = newDb.LogSet.ToArray(); //deadlock here... WHY?
}
test = db.LogSet.Where(l => l.Message == "TEST").Single();
db.LogSet.Remove(test);
db.SaveChanges();
transaction.Complete();
}
The code creates a simple Log entry in the database (yeah, I'm playing around at the moment so the values are rubbish). I've set the SQL database to allow snapshot isolation, and to my knowledge reads should still be permitted (these are being tested in this code by using a new, suppressed transaction and a new DataModelContainer). However, I cannot query the LogSet in the suppressed transaction or in SQL Management Studio - the whole table is locked!
So... why? Why is it locked if the transaction scope is defined as such? I've also tried other isolation levels (like ReadUncommited) and I still cannot query the table.
Could someone please provide an explanation for this behavior?

In SSMS, set your current isolation level to SNAPSHOT and see if that corrects your problem - it's probably set to READ COMMITTED and would therefore still block due to pending updates.
Update:
You can allow READ COMMITTED to access versioned rows DB-wide by altering the following option (and avoiding having to constantly set the current isolation level to SNAPSHOT):
ALTER DATABASE MyDatabase
SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON

Spring.net TransactionPropagation NotSupported

I'm in troubles with TransactionPropagation.NotSupported. I believed that this propagation causes that the code is executed within no transaction. Means that when I marked the specific method, the current transaction will be suspended and the code will be executed without any transaction.
The current version of spring.net creates new transaction instead. See the following code:
[Test]
public void A() {
TransactionTemplate template = new TransactionTemplate(TransactionManager) {
PropagationBehavior = TransactionPropagation.NotSupported
};
template.Execute(delegate {
Assert.AreEqual(0,
SessionFactory.GetCurrentSession().Linq<XXX>().
Where(t => t.Id.Equals(YYY)).ToList().Count);
return null;
});
}
I hoped that this notation causes that linq query is executed without transaction and it'll throw the new exception. But the log showed that it creates both new session and transaction automatically.
I've find out this issue when I marked any method by mentioned annotation and despite the annotation the LINQ query inside was correctly executed.
The question is: how can I mark the method to it's doesn't use the transaction at all? I don't want to use propagation never as I want the current transaction would be suspended.
My project has the business code flow, there is transaction handling, and I want to mark any parts to be certainly non-transactional.

You mention being able to tell from the log that a new transaction is started. What log, the database or the application? What database are you using? Some databases won't let you run a query outside a transaction at all, so would just start one internally for you...
Update:
Your issues looks similar to this one:
https://jira.springframework.org/browse/SPRNET-1307?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.ext.bamboo%3Abamboo-build-results-tabpanel#issue-tabs
I would make sure you are running the version of Spring.NET that has this fix in it (looks like v 1.3.1 or greater?)
Also, you could try manually suppressing the transaction and see if that fixes the behavior:
using(var tx = new TransactionScope(TransactionScopeOption.Suppress))
{
// make DB call...
}

"The operation is not valid for the state of the transaction" error and transaction scope

I am getting the following error when I try to call a stored procedure that contains a SELECT Statement:
The operation is not valid for the state of the transaction
Here is the structure of my calls:
public void MyAddUpdateMethod()
{
using (TransactionScope Scope = new TransactionScope(TransactionScopeOption.RequiresNew))
{
using(SQLServer Sql = new SQLServer(this.m_connstring))
{
//do my first add update statement
//do my call to the select statement sp
bool DoesRecordExist = this.SelectStatementCall(id)
}
}
}
public bool SelectStatementCall(System.Guid id)
{
using(SQLServer Sql = new SQLServer(this.m_connstring)) //breaks on this line
{
//create parameters
//
}
}
Is the problem with me creating another connection to the same database within the transaction?

After doing some research, it seems I cannot have two connections opened to the same database with the TransactionScope block. I needed to modify my code to look like this:
public void MyAddUpdateMethod()
{
using (TransactionScope Scope = new TransactionScope(TransactionScopeOption.RequiresNew))
{
using(SQLServer Sql = new SQLServer(this.m_connstring))
{
//do my first add update statement
}
//removed the method call from the first sql server using statement
bool DoesRecordExist = this.SelectStatementCall(id)
}
}
public bool SelectStatementCall(System.Guid id)
{
using(SQLServer Sql = new SQLServer(this.m_connstring))
{
//create parameters
}
}

When I encountered this exception, there was an InnerException "Transaction Timeout". Since this was during a debug session, when I halted my code for some time inside the TransactionScope, I chose to ignore this issue.
When this specific exception with a timeout appears in deployed code, I think that the following section in you .config file will help you out:
<system.transactions>
<machineSettings maxTimeout="00:05:00" />
</system.transactions>

I also come across same problem, I changed transaction timeout to 15 minutes and it works.
I hope this helps.
TransactionOptions options = new TransactionOptions();
options.IsolationLevel = System.Transactions.IsolationLevel.ReadCommitted;
options.Timeout = new TimeSpan(0, 15, 0);
using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope(TransactionScopeOption.Required,options))
{
sp1();
sp2();
...
}

For any wanderer that comes across this in the future. If your application and database are on different machines and you are getting the above error especially when using TransactionScope, enable Network DTC access. Steps to do this are:
Add firewall rules to allow your machines to talk to each other.
Ensure the distributed transaction coordinator service is running
Enable network dtc access. Run dcomcnfg. Go to Component sevices > My Computer > Distributed Transaction Coordinator > Local DTC. Right click properties.
Enable network dtc access as shown.
Important: Do not edit/change the user account and password in the DTC Logon account field, leave it as is, you will end up re-installing windows if you do.

I've encountered this error when my Transaction is nested within another. Is it possible that the stored procedure declares its own transaction or that the calling function declares one?

For me, this error came up when I was trying to rollback a transaction block after encountering an exception, inside another transaction block.
All I had to do to fix it was to remove my inner transaction block.
Things can get quite messy when using nested transactions, best to avoid this and just restructure your code.

In my case, the solution was neither to increase the time of the "transactionscope" nor to increase the time of the "machineSettings" property of "system.transactions" of the machine.config file.
In this case there was something strange because this error only happened when the volume of information was very high.
So the problem was based on the fact that in the code inside the transaction there were many "foreach" that made updates for different tables (I had to solve this problem in a code developed by other personnel). If tests were performed with few records in the tables, the error was not displayed, but if the number of records was increased then the error was displayed.
In the end the solution was to change from a single transaction to several separate ones in the different "foreach" that were within the transaction.

You can't have two transactions open at the same time. What I do is that I specify transaction.Complete() before returning results that will be used by the 2nd transaction ;)

I updated some proprietary 3rd party libraries that handled part of the database process, and got this error on all calls to save. I had to change a value in the web.config transaction key section because (it turned out) the referenced transaction scope method had moved from one library to another.
There was other errors previously connected with that key, but I got rid of them by commenting the key out (I know I should have been suspicious at that point, but I assumed it was now redundant as it wasn't in the shiny new library).